Michael Dell is no fool, which makes his remarks in an interview with InfoWorld published this week a puzzling read.
Dell is asked about one of the great mysteries of our time: why the No.1 PC company made strategic investments in Linux on the desktop, only to axe them rather dramatically, after only a few weeks.
All credit to Ashlee Vance for doggedly pursuing this mystery. Vance it was who discovered that Dell had, contrary to its public statements, disappeared the Linux option from its range of offerings.
At the time, Dell insisted that "our customers did not seem to want it though; the numbers didn't add up." But confusingly, Michael Dell still insists that the company does offer the option:-
"We continue to offer Linux on the desktop and there is nothing else to say," he tells Vance.
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